Hi All Gens,
This msg will accompany or precede another msg involving Bill King's
search for James Witherington 1902-1975, to which I am responding w/some
info abt using SSA (Social Security) records for Gen, particularly the ref
to the role of SSA's extensive efforts to locate a person.
In the other message, I mention a story, "The Quest for Christin",
recently carried in Julia Case's "MISSING LINKS: A Magazine for
Genealogists", a very interesting & free online mag, especially as a break
to appreciate the personal side of this Gen stuff, to which to enroll:
MISSING LINKS: A Magazine for Genealogists
Vol. 7, No. 31, 4 August 2002
http://www.petuniapress.com/
(c) 2001-2002 Julia M. Case
Editor-at-Fault: Julia M. Case
juliecase(a)prodigy.net
o The Quest for Christin
o . . . . .
This is the intro excerpt to that quite poignant tale about the efforts of
an interested person to assist in finding a lost . . . well . . . ., you
just have to read the whole thing, a couple relevant paragraphs excerpted
here:
THE QUEST FOR CHRISTIN
by Gladys Chatham May clmgjm@. . . ..net
My mother's brother, Ollie B. WEATHERFORD, married Ethel BAY.
They lived in the Pools community in Montgomery County, Texas.
They had no children. They took in her first cousin, William
Leon ADAMS (20 years younger than she), who lived with them most
of his growing up years. I was seven years younger than Leon, so
I remember seeing him when I would visit my aunt and uncle. In
1940, he joined the army. In 1946, he received an honorable
discharge and soon thereafter joined the Air Force. In 1949, he
was in the occupation forces in Germany where he married Helga
HUTTEN. They had a daughter they named Christin in 1951. In
1953, Leon was stationed in Alaska and drowned. Aunt Ethel died
in 1975 and Ollie B. died in 1980. Since they had no children to
do it, an uncle, aunt, and I cleaned out the house. I am a
packrat with family stuff, so I brought home lots of things I
didn't want to see thrown away. The most important of all was a
box with many letters and photos from Leon and Helga. Some were
sent to Ethel prior to Leon's marriage, and others after the
marriage. There were numerous pictures of Christin with her name
and the date and place written on the back. I wanted Christin to
have the letters and pictures.
When I began my quest for Christin, I discovered that nobody in
Aunt Ethel's family had kept up with Christin and Helga after
Leon died. I found a letter in the box that Helga had written
after she married a dentist named HOWELL and was living in North
Carolina. I wrote a letter to that address. The letter wasn't
answered and was not returned. When I got on the Internet
several years ago, I searched to no avail. Finally, in 2000, I
posted a query on RootsWeb and someone informed me that Social
Security will help find missing persons. The instructions were
to write Social Security Administration a letter explaining why
I was looking for Christin and enclose a letter to her in an
unsealed, stamped envelope. About eight months later, I got a
letter from Social Security telling me they had not found her,
but that if I would send more information they would continue
searching. I got out the box of treasures I wanted to return to
Christin and found a marriage announcement for Leon and Helga
that was written in German and English with her parents' names
on it. I found Leon's army serial number. I included Christin's
full name and birth date. I sent the letter with the new
information to Social Security in February 2001. About a month
later, on March 20, I got a call one morning. The voice said,
"My name is Kris HOWELL. I got the letter from Social Security."
I had searched for her for 15 years, and there I was talking to
her. . . . . .
Barry
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